


The one where they have dinner

by kris932



Series: Idiot's guide to relationships [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-16
Updated: 2014-04-16
Packaged: 2018-01-19 14:24:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1473055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kris932/pseuds/kris932
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The server interrupts them with their meat-lovers pizza before Tony can come up with a response. After the standard warnings about the food being hot (which they both ignored-life was meant to be lived dangerously-and the greasy gooey hot tips are the best part) and asking if they needed anything else, Tony blurts out. </p><p>“Well that sounds a hell of lot more fun than boarding school was.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The one where they have dinner

**Author's Note:**

> Should probably read the first part of the series before this one.

“You’re late, Lewis.” 

Darcy rolled her eyes and let out a rather stressed sounding sigh. 

“Almost didn’t bother to come.” Tony’s smirk slipped a little at her response but still managed to look smug. “Jane forced me to come.” She continued as she exited the elevator and avoided meeting his eyes for the first time since they had been introduced months ago. Instead she drank in the sight of his car. 

“Foster forced you?” His eyebrow rose slightly as he imagined the slim astrophysicist physically manhandling her bold and much bigger assistant. It was a hard mental image to form.

“She’s a deceptively strong woman, must be something in all those pop tarts she consumes. Plus, you should totally get a load of her sassing Thor when she’s pissed at him.” 

“He gets that wounded puppy dog look, doesn’t he?”

“Too right.”

“In his defense, your boss is insane.” 

This gained him a quick smile and a laugh as she came in closer to look at the Corvette. 

“Thor’s probably just glad Jane doesn’t own a car here in the city.” 

“Huh, why?” he asked turning to watch Darcy examine the paint job. She was avoiding running her hands across the glossy finish despite the slight twitching that showed she really wanted to. 

“What!? You really don’t know the story?”

“No?” he replied. “Oh, and you can touch Lewis, my intention was to have you actually sit in the car at some point, so touching the door’s not going to kill it.”  
She blushed a bit at his last statement and avoided his eyes again, but reached out a hand to get a feel of the paint job before she continued with her original statement. “About the time Jane ran over Thor with her van.”

“How did I not find out about this? I hacked her file and everything. Details Lewis, and I’ll let you look at the engine.” Tony bribed as he moved to where Darcy was standing in front of the hood. 

“Classified.”

He mock glared at her but reached under the steering wheel to pop the hood up for her anyway. She did her best to ignore him and focused her attention on the engine instead. 

“This is way out of my league but you do good restorations, Stark.” 

“Naturally.”

She pulled back from the car and reached up to close the hood and then turned around with her arms crossed across her chest as she leaned back on the car. Tony found himself next to her matching her stance. And eyeing her chest once again. The conversation surrounding the car died as Darcy studied her nails on her left hand and Tony found himself wishing for a bottle of scotch. For two normally talkative people the silence was deafening. At least to Tony it was. 

“How’d you learn about this stuff anyway?” he asked trying to get them talking again.

“Huh?” 

“Cars, engines, shit like that. Takes some actual training to know what you know.” 

“Dad owns his own shop. He started with airplanes, moved to boats, and cars in our family never stopped runnin’ if he had a say in it. Insisted me and my sister be able to fix things without calling in help. I ended up being halfway decent at it.”

“Hence that maroon eyesore you have sitting in my shop.”

“You know that car could legally drink before I could?” 

Ah, it was probably time to cue the uneasy silence part of the evening again. 

“So dinner then? What did you have in mind?” Darcy asked as she turned to look at him. She didn’t sound all that excited at the prospect, but she hadn’t walked out yet either. 

Tony had a feeling his next few sentences might make or break the evening. 

“I take it any place that is going to land us on every fuckin tabloid in the country is a bad idea.”

She nodded and he thought he heard her mutter ‘damn right’ under her breath.

“I know a pizza joint outside the city. It’s quiet. Bit of a drive though…”  
.  
.  
.  
Dinner goes better than they both expected it to. 

The drive had been quiet, except for the loud rock music that they both could easily belt out the lyrics to playing through some of the best speakers ever. Darcy was off key, Tony surprisingly good and in tune. 

Darcy, never one to give up on a good meal relaxes a bit as she sips on her beer and dips the complimentary bread into the seasoned olive oil sitting between her and Tony. The restaurant is situated in a small strip mall in a little town about an hour away from the city. It’s in New Jersey of all states and she wonders how the hell Tony Stark of all people stumbled on it. The food looks promising, but it’s really not Tony’s scene at all what with casually dressed retirees and a family with a baby in a high chair as the backdrop. But it is quiet and discreet and she’s really really glad that at this point (at least) she won’t be watching youtube clips the next day of TMZ finding them stumbling out of some high class city joint. 

Tony steals the last piece of bread from her and she scowls at him in annoyance as he soaks up the oil and pops it in his mouth with a smug grin. The jerk.

“So how’d he go from planes to boats.”

It’s such a random statement it throws Darcy off for a minute before she remembers she had mentioned her dad earlier back at the tower. 

“Keeping his pilot’s license got pricy and Mom wanted to have kids. So he convinced her to move on a sail boat in Cali.”

“You’re fucking joking.”

“Nope.” She popped the ‘p’ loudly. “And Dad’s the normal one in the family, I got an uncle on my Mom’s side that made his pregnant wife live in a teepee.”

Tony laughs and then stares in an odd mixture of disbelief and horror when he realizes she doesn’t seem to be joking. If it is a joke then Natasha must have been giving Darcy lessons in remaining stoic and bland at all times because her face doesn’t show the slightest hint of laughter for once. 

“You lived on a boat?”

“Yep.” 

The server interrupts them with their meat-lovers pizza before Tony can come up with a response. After the standard warnings about the food being hot (which they both ignored-life was meant to be lived dangerously-and the greasy gooey hot tips are the best part) and asking if they needed anything else, Tony blurts out. 

“Well that sounds a hell of lot more fun than boarding school was.” 

She shrugs and smiles and they fall into silence again, but this time it’s simply because the pizza’s very good and they are both hungry. 

He tips the waitress an obscene amount of money as they are about to leave and it gains him a wide smile from Darcy. She’s had enough shitty shifts as a waitress during college  
to know that even if you have money it didn’t always mean you tipped well. 

The ride back into the city goes much the same as before. Darcy’s still off key, but she makes Tony grin and laugh as she raises the volume on the radio when ‘Girls Girls Girls’ comes on. 

He kisses her good night- this time on the lips. But it’s still quick and fairly polite and when she pulls away he doesn’t push the issue.


End file.
